Refugee Brutally Beaten in Toronto NEO-NAZISM RISE CITED AFTER BEATING OF IMMIGRANT
By Peter Small
A vicious, racially motivated beating that has left a Tamil refugee
claimant partially paralyzed is part of an alarming increase in neo-Nazi
thuggery, anti-racism groups say.
Next week, Metro police plan to release statistic on this year's number
of crimes based on hatred of race, nationality, religion, or sexual
orientation. A police source has pegged the number at around *70.
Ottawa police are probing 80 hate-based crimes since January, said
Detective Dan Dunlop of that city's bias crime unit.
"There's no question that there has been an increase in agressive or
assaultive behavior by neo-Nazis and racist factions in Canada," said
Bernie Farber of the
Canadian Jewish Congress.
"The real question is: is it planned, or just part and parcel of a
criminal mindset?"
Farber blamed the increase on a lack of police will to fight. "Racist
groups and individuals are pushing and pushing, and no one is pushing
back," he said.
Antoni Shelton, executive director of the
Urban Alliance on Race
Relations, agreed racist attacks are on the rise and blamed neo-fascist
groups and their successful youth recruitment drives.
"The rise of these groups around the country has been documented,"
Shelton said, adding that the alliance wants more documentation of hate
crimes themselves to better tackle them.
Two weekends ago, more than **500 white supremacists and anti-racist
protesters clashed in front of the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa. Three
arrests were pending in that melee yesterday.
In Kitchener last week, a man and a youth were charged after a Jewish
store owner confronted three people, two wearing Nazi regalia, and a fight
ensued.
In Sunday's brutal beating, Sivarajah Vinasithamby, 41, was attacked as
he was finishing his shift as a dishwasher at the Tasty restaurant on
Bloor St. W. near Clinton St. at about 1:30 a.m.
Police describe the attack as unprovoked and racially motivated.
"I'm very worried for his life," said his wife, Sivarajah Bawany, 33,
through a translator.
She has been spending all day by his bedside in Toronto Western
Hospital, while their three children, girls aged two and eight and a boy
aged six, are looked after by a cousin's family.
It's the first instance of bigotry the man's family has encountered in
Canada, said his cousin, Para Sinnathurai, 40.
Described by fellow restaurant workers as quiet and friendly,
Vinasithamby fled to Canada two years ago to escape persecution after the
Sri-Lankan army took over his village, his cousin said.
He had taught high school science there while working toward a bachelor
of science degree, Sinnathurai said.
His wife has a bachelor of economics degree and is studying English and
typing so she can get a job.
The
original plaintext version
of this file is available via
ftp,
and was posted to UseNet by gecko@zooid.guild.org; the article contains additional information from
Toronto's Anti-Racist Action, an organization which appears to
accept violence as a political solution - an acceptance Nizkor
does not share.
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Toronto Star, June 1993 (A2)
TORONTO STAR